MOBILITY PATTERNS INTERLOCKED BY THE PERPETUAL FEAR OF CASTE, GENDER, AND RELIGION

Abstract

Mobility, either for work or leisure, is a fundamental right that needs to be accorded to all, irrespective of differences based on class, gender, religion, and other identity markers. When this right to mobility is eclipsed by disparities and discrimination for people situated differently or marked by their exclusive characteristics, it calls attention to dwell upon a better meaning of mobility and investigate how mobility interrelates with gender, work, and society. Exercising the right to mobility is contingent upon class differences, caste-based occupations, gender preferences, urban infrastructure, and access to transportation. Therefore, the present study attempts to examine the mobility patterns of working-class women of the Christian minority community in Lahore by not restricting the understanding of physical mobility to everyday commuting for work, rather it brings into light a varied dimension of mobility terrains. Applying in-depth interviews as a qualitative research tool, 11 interviews of Christian women belong to working classes were conducted. Of all, 7 worked as domestic workers and 4 as security guards. By listening voices of minority women from the margins about their situated realities, the study deliberated on how mobility reconfigures with exclusive identity markers, such as spatial marginality, caste-based occupation, gender, class, and religion. The exploration of the concerns and constraints of women regarding their mobility concerns aims at facilitating an understanding as well as to recognizing uneven layers of mobility that expand the understanding of mobility, defined or understood, by people living in poor settlements.